Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcc01!hpdmd48!ritchie
From: ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: expensive books
Message-ID: <10002@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com>
Date: 27 Aug 90 04:32:27 GMT
References: <9008261444.AA26368@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Hewlett Packard - Boise, ID
Lines: 15

>Colin Plumb asks where the cost of his book comes from. Well of the $60 about
>$30 goes to the book shop, nominally to pay their rates, employees, cost of
>stocking etc (having a lot of cash tied in slo moving stock is expensive I
>guess). 
>Edi

  This may be true overseas, but is definitely not true in the U.S. For high 
end technical books (i.e. anything by Prentice Hall or Addison Wesley), 
wholesale price is 80% of list. For really obscure books, there may be 
*no* discount off of list (ouch!). Discounts are better if the store
orders from the publisher in sufficent quantity to qualify for agency plans,
but not much.

				Dave Ritchie N4DJS
				member of American Booksellers Assocation